Brainy boffins have developed a mathematical algorithm that could boost new cryptocurrency Zcash‘s prestige and topple Bitcoin’s crown. Scientists at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg have created the algorithm – Equihash – a core component for Zcash, which “offers more privacy and equality than the famous […]
We’re only six weeks into the New Year and already we’ve seen significant activity on the regulatory front in the U.S. and more to come in the U.K. and Europe. Meanwhile, many of the other trends we identified as ones to watch in our Year-in-Review report—bots, blockchain and co-opetition—have been dominating the headlines (along with some major acquisitions). Are you investing in the right places?
Five European central securities depositories (CSDs) have migrated their respective communities to live operations on the Target2-Securities (T2S) platform using Swift’s value added network (VAN) solution. OeKB CSD (Austria), Clearstream Banking (Germany), LuxCSD (Luxembourg), Centrálny depozitár cenných papierov SR (CDCP) (Slovakia) and KDD – Centralna klirinško depotna družba (Slovenia) all migrated over. These five quickly […]
Canada’s banking group CIBC is implementing Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX for regulatory reporting across its locations in the UK, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Banks need to do more than just comply with the upcoming revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2). To survive, banks will need to embrace these changes.
UK-based payments start-up Revolut has unveiled its “human-like” chatbot, Rita, to answer customer queries. Rita – which stands for “Revolut’s Intelligent Troubleshooting Assistant” – is accessible via the mobile app’s messenger support service. Customers can open the app, send Rita a message and get an instant reply. During the pilot scheme, Rita resolved 20% of […]
UK challenger Metro Bank has accelerated a data project delivery, cutting provisioning time by 80%, following the deployment of the Delphix Data Virtualisation platform. The bank began working with California-based Delphix to enable it to deliver data to teams better. The idea was to integrate enterprise software into an existing IT stack. Delphix says its […]
BankUP, a new fintech venture based in Kontich, Belgium, looks to tap into the European SME banking market.
Uncertainty over Brexit has created a 33.7% decrease in UK venture capital (VC) investment for fintech firms, according to research by Innovate Finance. Investment was down to $783 million – less than two thirds of 2015 investment of $1.2 billion. Nine of the top 20 UK deals closed post Brexit, with total investment after the […]
Digital money transfer service WorldRemit is now available in Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, expanding its partnership with the Russian “Contact” payment system. The development follows WorldRemit’s recent service launch across Russia in collaboration with Contact. The firm’s users can now send money to be collected as cash pick up at more than 3,000 locations […]
Moven, the online-only bank founded by Brett King, has launched its finance help app to “make monetary monitoring easy for everyone” in the UK at FinovateEurope. Moven was first launched in the US in 2013, and this new UK app took four weeks to launch. King says this is its “first launch in Europe” and […]
Private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners will acquire a portfolio of Italian performing and non-performing corporate secured loans from Barclays. The portfolio, which has a gross book value of €177 million, comprises loans to primarily small and mid-sized corporates secured against real estate located mostly in the north of Italy. The agreement follows AnaCap’s Credit […]
Fire Financial Services – now trading as Fire – has launched and is targeting the UK and Irish markets with a digital account. Colm Lyon, founder and CEO at Fire, says: “It has taken some time for us to reach this day – several years of trying and getting it wrong.” Now the business has […]
CaixaBank’s mobile-only bank, imaginBank, has unveiled a chatbot to help millennials find offers and promotions most relevant to them, based on their preferences or location. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the chatbot will be available to users via Facebook Messenger on imaginBank’s Facebook page. Launched in January 2016, imaginBank is a 100% digital and mobile […]
Clearstream Banking Frankfurt and LuxCSD have migrated to the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Target2-Securities (T2S) platform. “The first business day is already in process and runs smoothly,” Clearstream states.
Sweden-based payments provider Klarna has acquired a fellow payments company in Germany, BillPay. The deal is understood to be worth £60 million.
SIX Payment Services brings to market PayLife 0100, Austria’s first mobile credit card.
Switzerland’s Federal Council has issued a consultation paper on amendments required to its Banking Act and Banking Ordinance, to create an environment that helps fintech start-ups thrive in the country.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) recently proposed new rules that would require payment card operators to enforce additional security measures, such as passwords or security tokens, for all online transactions over €10, aimed at fraud prevention. This is a clumsy solution to a problem that is already being addressed by far more sophisticated means, argues Nick Wallace, senior policy analyst at Centre for Data Innovation, and policymakers should reject the EBA’s proposal.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says its banking “final order” is giving people greater control over their money and reckons the open banking revolution is getting closer. As Banking Technology reported in August, the CMA unveiled its plans to make banks “work harder for customers” and ensure the “benefits of new technology are […]
British and American governments, businesses, and others have formed P20 – a group of “influential leaders” and the “first” Transatlantic payments initiative of its kind. Its inaugural meeting is to be held in autumn 2017 in London, where 20 people in the payments industry, and US/UK government officials and regulators will meet. It will rotate […]
The dynamic and successful world of UK fintech has left the British public shocked as they’ve become numbed to shoddy customer service, invisible trains and useless politicians. Banking Technology took to the litter-strewn and phlegm-coated streets of London to inform the citizens about the nation’s start-ups, innovation, energy and can-do attitude. And to gauge the […]
Swiss-based Vontobel Asset Management has chosen SimCorp Coric to automate its client communications and fund reporting processes. Vontobel will deploy SimCorp Coric as a hosted solution via Microsoft Azure and the agreement will see the Coric solution replace in-house manual processes as well as an existing incumbent third-party solution. Stuart Keeler, managing director of SimCorp […]
Swift Innotribe has partnered with the Russian National Swift Member and User Group (Rosswift) comprising the Bank of Russia, the National Settlement Depository, Sberbank, and Alfa-Bank, to launch its first start-up challenge in the region.
FinTecSystems, Fidor Bank and credit comparison site Smava have teamed up to offer the “first fully” automatic credit system with an “immediate payout” in Germany. Called Kredit2Go, the entire process of requesting, processing and disbursement is digital, and the payment is made immediately after the digital signature. FinTecSystems provides the “building blocks” for the credit assessment […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Deutsche Bank £163 million for failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) control framework during the period between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2015. This is the largest financial penalty for AML controls failings ever imposed by the FCA, or its predecessor the Financial Services […]
UK-based mobile banking firm Tide has launched with its business account app for SMEs. As Banking Technology reported in July 2016, Tide was gearing up for its launch and said it will offer a “nimble small business current account”, with a swift set-up and no monthly fees. It claims to be among the “world’s first” […]
Nava Finance has been granted approval by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to begin offering personal loans to consumers. The company says it is now focused on working towards an initial launch date, which will be announced when all testing and other preparations are fully completed. Nava sources loan funding from institutional investors and […]
Barclaycard is trialling contactless donations as it says charities may be missing out on more than £80 million each year by only accepting cash donations. According to its research, four in ten (42%) Brits say they carry less cash now than they did three years ago. While, one in seven (15%) people admit to walking […]
UK-based Advanced Payment Solutions (trading as APS Financial) has launched a new mobile platform as it looks to compete with “neo” mobile banks. New services include the ability to set up a new account via the Cashplus app. Customers can also manage payments and transfers, get “instant access” to their money or arrange overdrafts using […]
Like a charming European fairy tale, questions over who shall inherit a crown and become the new ruler were raised. At the Economist’s Finance Disrupted conference, “Collaborate or die”, held yesterday (25 January) in London, the city’s pre-eminence in the fintech field fell under scrutiny. Initial discussions looked at why this metropolis is such a […]
Citi’s global perspectives and solutions team has issued a 100-page report on digital disruption in the fintech industry. It has analysed venture capital (VC) investments in the fintech industry between 2010 and 2016, as well as the emerging technologies across the globe.
As with any revolution, open banking will have winners and losers. How to stay competitive in the digital era?
Luxembourg-based Rakuten Europe Bank, a subsidiary of Japan’s e-commerce and internet company, Rakuten, has gone live with Temenos’ T24 core banking system and Temenos Connect for digital channels.
Austria’s Erste Bank und Sparkassen can now verify new customers’ IDs via video. The functionality has been developed with specialist provider IDnow and introduced just a few weeks following the approval by the country’s Financial Market Authority (FMA).
HSBC plans the closure of 62 of its UK branches in 2017, with the loss of up to 180 jobs. This will bring the number of branches it has in the country to 625 by the end of 2017. It says it has no intention to close any further branches in 2017 and this marks […]
The UK’s Post Office has entered the banking market as a new industry-wide agreement with the nation’s banks comes into effect. From today (24 January), 99% of UK personal bank customers and over 75% of business customers can do their day-to-day banking at the Post Office – described as the “biggest expansion in face-to-face banking […]
Amsterdam-based banking software vendor Ohpen has gained approval from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out its regulated activities under its new British company, Ohpen Operations UK. Angelique Schouten, Ohpen UK’s CEO, says the approval means it can “deliver an alternative for financial services companies to digitalise and outsource their entire investments and […]
Deutsche Börse has developed a concept for the “riskless” transfer of commercial bank money via an infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology (DLT)/blockchain. By combining blockchain with its post-trade infrastructure, Deutsche Börse says the same as everyone else – such as it will “achieve efficiencies” and will investigate “possible new business opportunities”. Via collateralisation at […]
